Soviet Defector Says Arrogant Rulers Plan To Dominate World

May 9, 1985|By Randolph Harrison, Sentinel Foreign Correspondent

The highest-ranking member of the Soviet Union ever to defect told an audience at the University of Central Florida Wednesday night that his former Soviet colleagues fear a nuclear war and believe they can dominate the world without having to fight one.

Arkady Shevchenko, former Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, defected to the United States in April 1978 and since has captivated Western audiences with his insights into the Soviet power structure.

Shevchenko, 54, once was the protege of Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. After 22 years in the Soviet foreign service, while Shevchenko was the undersecretary of the United Nations, he defected because of what he described as his disillusionment with the Soviet way of life.

He told the audience that Soviet leaders have an ''arrogance of power,'' leading them to believe they can move quietly and slowly in Third World countries while the West, led by the United States, is reluctant to resist them.

''This arrogance is what encourages them to move into Nicaragua through Cuba, which is almost a satellite of the Soviet Union,'' he said.

He added that because of the Soviet leadership's belief in victory over Western powers through subversion, they will not resort to nuclear war.

''They recognize nuclear war is impossible in that they understand everything would be destroyed,'' he said.

In an aside that brought laughter, Shevchenko said Americans should not be too worried about Soviet civil defense preparations, though they are far greater than this country's.

''My office was next to Gromyko's on the seventh floor and the elevator was so slow there would be no time for even Gromyko to get down to the shelter below.''

Shevchenko was at UCF to address the fifth annual President's Circle dinner for people who have contributed $1,000 or more to the university's academic scholarship program. Previous speakers were commentator and author William Buckley Jr., former secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig and former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.